Motiva Miami-Dade Selloff

Shell subsidiary transitioning out of market with sale of 35 units to Sunshine Gasoline

DORAL, Fla. -- As part of the ongoing transition of Shell and Motiva gas stations from direct to wholesaler supplied operations, Shell subsidiary Motiva Enterprises LLC has sold all of its stations in the Miami-Dade County, Fla., market to Sunshine Gasoline Distributors, a Doral, Fla.-based oil company.

Sunshinea longtime owner and operator of stations in Miami-Dade under the CITGO, Chevron and Texaco brandspurchased 35 stations from Motiva on September 3, Sunshine founder Maximo Alvarez told The Daily Business Review. Alvarez was a Cuban native transplanted to [image-nocss] Miami. Calls to Alverez were not returned by press time.

As reported in a CSP Daily News Flash on Friday, Sunshine paid $18.05 million for the properties, according to county records cited by the newspaper.

Sunshine also bought 24 properties for $16.36 million in late July, the report said.

Shell is selling off its retail holdings by 2010. The company is continuing its plan to dissolve its multisite-operator (MSO) partnerships and to grow through the wholesale class of trade, including wholesaler joint ventures, transitioning more markets from direct-supplied to wholesale- or wholesale/joint-venture-supplied markets.

In 2007, Shell completed the transition of sites in Southern California to Tesoro as part of the sale of its refining and terminal assets. It also transitioned direct markets in Kansas City and Hartford/New Haven. The company transitioned sites in Atlanta, Chicago, Boston, New York, southeast Florida, Seattle, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and the remaining sites in Los Angeles. Motiva transitioned sites in Houston, New Jersey and Rhode Island.

In 2008, Shell transitioned sites in the Sacramento, Calif., area. Motiva transitioned sites in the Houston market, New Orleans and Fairfield, Conn.

And in 2009, Shell has transitioned sites in California and Chicago.

The strategy allows Shell and Motiva the opportunity to participate in the market and site income streams with a more efficient operating structure, the company told CSP Daily News in 2007. These relationships allow Shell and Motiva to mitigate risk while continuing to influence long-term branding decisions, capital structure, growth, dividend streams and real-estate presence. Additionally, the entrepreneurial culture of a joint venture fosters growth, facilitates swift decision-making and enables quick execution of projects.

Shell Oil Products US, a subsidiary of Shell Oil Co., Houston, has a network of approximately 6,100 branded stations in the western United States. Houston-based Motiva, which operates the eastern and southeastern U.S. refining and marketing businesses for Shell and Saudi Refining Inc. (SRI), possesses a marketing network that supports approximately 7,700 Shell-branded stations.